I love road trips, so when my son decided to go to university in Montreal we decided to make the move into a family road trip. The open road, treats for the car, watching the scenery go by, loading up the CD player with music you haven’t heard in awhile – everyone singing along and enjoying the ride.

Histoire Charnelle and I had been flirting in Paris for a long time. Sometimes I’d see it around and try it, usually after a day of sampling scents on my wrists, arms, hands, fingers and thumbs. But it never spoke to me, or maybe it did, but I couldn’t hear it’s call above the scent soup I was wearing. Like most flirtations we danced around, but didn’t go any further.

I just got off the phone with a good friend. She was calling me from downtown where she was shopping. She sounded frazzled – she said she was tired, hot and hungry. She had a question: she was looking for a good summer frag – something light and refreshing but with enough soul to balance out the ill effects of a hot summer’s day. She’d gone to a few shops, but she was so discombobulated, that she couldn’t make up her mind.